jacksonanimation
It’s one thing to be able to animate a character, but it’s another thing to be able to animate a camera correctly. I think of the camera as another character in the scene that requires as much attention and detail as any “physical” character that is in the scene. Just as it is important to notice foot sliding or pops in animation, the camera needs to follow rules such as framing, breaking the 180 rule, or agreeing with the narrative style that the art director has expressed.
The clips you find in this section show some of the camera animation, camera specific animation, and non player controlled sequences that I have worked on.
Demo Reel
A reel showcasing some of my work.
Battlefield Hardline
The camera set up, framing, and movement were all done by me. Motion capture set up, clean up, and facial animation were also my work.
Battlefield Hardline
This sequence was fun. I really wanted to experiment with the camera movement especially in the earlier shots. I was also trying to get a fluid organic movement without going into the "shaky hand held cam" that was very popular at the time.
Motion capture set up, clean up, and facial animation were also my work.
Dead Space 2
This sequence was quite challenging. It is a seamless blend from cinematic to gameplay back into a cinematic. Another challenge was to slow down Issac after this epic journey without giving the player the impression that Isaac could fly. In this sequence I animated Isaac and the chair as well as his fall through the electrical duct. During the gameplay sequence, I created Isaac's fall idles. Everything was hand keyed as it is very hard to convince a motion capture actor to fall through a narrow passage while crashing into metal objects.
Battlefield Hardline
I did not do the final camera movements for this clip, however, I did set up the initial blocking for the camera. The main work I did for this scene was all the vehicle animation. I also did the majority of vehicle animation work throughout the game.
Dead Space 3
There was a lot of pressure for this sequence. Our producer came to me and wanted to add a cinematic after the main character had been swallowed by a gigantic monster. I immediately filmed myself for reference and was able to hand key and finalize this scene within a day. I was responsible for character, camera, and intestinal animation.
Dead Space 3
This was another situation where it is very hard to convince a motion capture actor to risk personal harm. I was responsible for all character animation and camera movement.